UK Chapter

International Council on Systems Engineering

Capability Working Group

The INCOSE UK Capability Working Group was established in September 2009 following an inaugural meeting at the University of the West of England. This meeting established that there are widely differing views of what constitutes capability. It was clear that these various views had to be understood before embarking on any serious exploration of how Systems Engineering relates to capability. The question for the working group is: What needs to be done to improve our understanding and approach to capability, and how can systems engineering help?

A Perspectives Analysis Sub-group was established to investigate these different views and a White Paper was published in September 2010. The sub-group applied the first three of the seven steps of Checkland's SSM to document 8 Weltanschauung or Worldviews of capability. These perspectives on capability, once tested through wider dissemination and review, will provide the basis to further the aims of the working group (see below).

Mission statement

The aims of the CWG are to:

Identify gaps in current guidance to better support the capability engineering aspects of systems engineering;

Provide guidance and advice to UK systems engineering community on capability practice;